A known type of bundle tie material, for forming bundle ties on wire bundles or the like, comprises a continuous strip having spaced-apart openings therein and having ratchet type latching means, such as latching extensions, on its surface. In use, the leading end of the strip is threaded through one of the openings to form a loop and the leading end is then pulled to tighten the loop in the manner of a ratchet mechanism onto the bundle. After the loop has been tightened, the material is cut at two locations; the scrap material extending from the bundle to the leading end of the material is cut and discarded and the length of material extending to the reel or spool is cut also. Bundle tie material of this type is shown, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,224,054, 3,438,095, and 4,045,843.
As noted above, the use of bundle tie material as shown in the above-identified U.S. patent involves a substantial loss of material as scrap when a section of the material is installed on a bundle as a bundle tie. This scrap loss is a serious consideration for the reason that the cost of material in a bundle tie represents a substantial portion of the overall manufacturing costs and the cost of the tie, as installed on the bundle, can be substantially reduced if the scrap loss is eliminated.
It is also difficult with ties of the type described above to thread the leading end of the bundle tie material through an opening in the strip of material which is remote from the leading end to form the loop which is tightened onto the bundle. The difficulty of performing this operation increases as the size of the bundle tie material is reduced and the difficulty encountered approaches the difficulty required to thread a needle if the tie material is extremely narrow. Finally, the nature of the bundle tie material of this known type is such that it is impractical to design automatic or semiautomatic tools for applying the material to bundles as bundle ties.
Bundle ties of the type shown in the above-identified U.S. patents are manufactured by a molding, or sometimes an extrusion operation, coupled with a stamping operation to form the holes in the material. The molding or extrusion operations can be quite inexpensive to carry out. However, the addition of a stamping operation increases the manufacturing cost considerably and the fact that material must be removed from the extruded or molded strip when the holes are stamped in the material also involves a material scrap loss which is undesirable for reasons discussed above.
The present invention is directed to the achievement of an improved bundle tie material which can be manufactured without scrap losses and which can also be applied as an individiual bundle without scrap loss by the user. The invention is further directed to the achievement of an improved bundle tie material which provides redundancy in an applied bundle tie on a bundle of wires or the like. The invention is also directed to the achievement of a bundle tie material which can be readily applied by automatic or semiautomatic tools. Additionally, the invention is directed to the achievement of improved bundle ties and improved methods of installing bundle ties on wire bundles or the like. Finally, the invention is considered with a bundle tie material which can be produced as a plastic strip or, if required, as a metal strip.